Let me start by saying that nowadays is almost impossible to either fit a specific criteria in terms of music genre or to fit a specific aesthetic in music. Everything is a fusion or a blend of things together, so it’s hard to find identity in the huge spectrum of music today.
Theres two statements I might get backfired but they need to be said.
Theres no authenticity now-days, everything is already created. What we consume now is either recycle, taken from somewhere else or literally ripped off.
There are no music genres as we used to know them because of the amount of blend a song now-days has.
You might agree or not but let me just expand a little bit more on it. I don’t mean that there's no great ideas that are revolutionary and very inspiring, what I’m saying is that almost all the music we hear now; when the creatives sit down and actually made it, they were either heavy influenced by something already made, they sample a song from the past and gave it a little touch or they combined multiple references and create something based on that. It’s hard to call something authentic now-days. The amount of times I’ve been in the studio; and before we start creating we present references of things we liked is the best way to set the mood and the vibe. Even if we start from a blank session maybe the topic of the song or the aesthetic of the music is heavy influenced by something already made. It's maybe a complex opinion, I’m not making hard statements because art keeps evolving and things change, but those changes are guided by the past most of the time. Especially now that we are obsessed with bringing the past alive. As a producer I can tell you that I love bringing 80’s aesthetic or getting inspired by great late 90’s or 00’s music.
Now when we talk about genres we are talking about the boxes in which we put vinyls on.
These labels on the store is the best way to divide the genres of music. But now those lines have been blur so much that theres songs that are literally multiple genres. Theres songs where the tempo change, the instrumentals change and its almost like 3 songs in one. I don’t have nothing against it, I actually love how now a song can be a whole journey but now it’s clearly impossible to establish a genre in a song.
This is where I feel like music in terms of a creative process has dramatically changed, affecting the perception of the artist itself. You see… before an artist or a band could live in a genre and could feel it belongs to a scene. Now the scenes are so mixed up I’ve seen a metal band open for a hip hop act and at the end close up with a DJ Set. I love this by the way, never thought scenes could uplift each other, but I feel like as an artist is hard to belong somewhere. And let me be clear I hate belonging somewhere. But it’s because I’m the result of multiple blends as an artist and as a music producer that even I’m running away from it, I can identify where my music is coming from.
So I never belong, never wanted to belong but still even if I don’t choose to, the presumption on the outside is different. To me its crazy that when I produce a track for a hip hop artist I’m labeled as something different than when I produce and collab on an Electronic music track but it’s also a different label when I’m playing with my band. You might think, well you belong on all those scenes anyways; but those blends affect my creativity, my music and ultimate my work when I’m producing for somebody else. I cant even imagine how it must be for songwriters or even musicians. I wanted to have this conversation because I feel like no matter who you are and if you want to fit a criteria or not, you will find yourself in the need of belong, not because you want it or not, but because if you want to inspire others, you have to set your ground strong enough so you can navigate and don’t compromise your identity.
We all at the end want to belong somewhere. Belonging is a fundamental human need, we need it to be in the right state of mind to create. Belonging can be in a more psychological perspective but I want to be specific: I’m talking about belonging in terms of the artist facing his art and where both things actually live. You can be the most fusion artist in the world but you still are borrowing things from specific genres. You still have a specific scene that is supporting you and thats where you need to stand your ground to know where you belong.
As a bedroom producer I can tell you that most of our journeys are pretty lonely but the core of our connections and relationships create that belonging feeling. And it’s important to try to identify it because it defines where we are heading and how we want to be remembered. At the end of the day no matter what you create, what matters is your expression and what you want to say (most of the times if you are about your art) so it doesn’t really matter how many fusions you have on your music. But you have to pay your respect to those scenes and art that supports your journey. Theres no way to actually proper do things but its great when you put your art there and you can elaborate some words to describe it.
This is when it gets so confusing. I wonder… have you ever tried to explain your art to others? Not like homies, like actually sit down with somebody completely unaware of your art and try to explain it to him?
Most of the time I used to think that if its hard to explain it's actually good because I’m doing something unique. Now I want to be more focused in trying to explain my references, my inspirations and what got me into thinking in blends and what I’m actually sampling. Its great to go back and listen what your favorite artist listen to. It gives you the core of everything because if you think about it even Elvis Presley had to get his inspiration from something.
The world is evolving into a constant recycle of patterns and past-eras and you want to be as unique as possible to not be part of the garbage.
